


free on my own, that's the way I used to be

by ashintuku



Series: fox on the run [25]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Alien Culture, Canon Non-Binary Character, F/M, Gen, Unconventional Families, ravagers as family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 06:23:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11845785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashintuku/pseuds/ashintuku
Summary: “Oh! Oh, it’s Kraglin! Kraglin! KRAGLIN! HI!”The two of them stopped, Peter slowly turning to Kraglin with eyebrows raised.“...Secret girlfriend?”





	free on my own, that's the way I used to be

They were on G’Eskur for a bit of R&R. 

Kraglin had been the one to suggest the planet, recalling that there’d been some good shops there, clean inns, and a few races Peter had wanted to go see. There was also the gambling and the courtesan houses, but it was unanimously agreed to avoid those sections for the most part. 

(Rocket made no promises, but then again, Rocket tended to like to do things on his own once in a while. Get some space from the hairless crew members.) 

They docked the Quadrant in the space port, taking the newly recovered _Milano_ down to the surface; everyone crammed into the back and watching the descent with varying expressions of excitement to wariness. When they landed in their designated spot, the first off the ship was Rocket, Groot following close behind him; Drax and Mantis talking together as they trailed after them. Gamora and Kraglin waited for Peter. 

“I want to see those ship races,” Peter said as soon as they set foot on solid ground. Kraglin snorted, and Gamora rolled her eyes; but the two of them were smiling their own small, gentle smiles, and Peter grinned back at them. “And then I want to check out that terran shop again – there was some good stuff there!” 

“How long we stayin’ here, Pete?” 

“A few days, maybe a week? I think we deserve a break.” Kraglin hummed noncommittally, but Gamora nodded in agreement, and Peter sighed. 

It had been months since Ego; months of going around, planet to planet, checking out the damages his father had wrought and doing their best to repair it. They avoided the territories of the Sovereign, which was probably for the best, and did odd jobs to keep their coffers full. The general population of the galaxy was confused about the remains of the expansion, but willing to believe that the Guardians had stopped their imminent destruction yet again because, hey, it’s what they did. 

The only ones to know what actually happened were the Guardians themselves, the Ravagers who had come to Yondu’s funeral (all of them, literally _all of them_ ), and Nova Prime and the Nova Corps, because Gamora had thought they should know and Peter had begrudgingly agreed. 

But it had been a long few months, filled with busywork, repairing the _Milano_ and sporadic bouts of grieving, and Peter thought that they needed to get away from everything for a little while. 

“Well, I’m not particularly interested in ship races,” Gamora said after a moment, flicking back her hair and looking around, “but I may look around the markets. We’re starting to get low on supplies.” 

“Make sure you actually enjoy yourself, too, Gamora,” Peter said, reaching over and brushing her hair behind her ear. She watched him quietly, reaching up to press his hand to her cheek from where it lingered near her, before pulling away with a nod. Peter and Kraglin watched her walk away, before Peter turned to Kraglin with a smile. “You want to come with, Krags?” 

“Eh, why not,” Kraglin shrugged, rolling his neck. They started down a street, following signs that pointed to where people had to go to get on a shuttle for the ship races. Peter had just pointed out the shuttle port when a voice called out behind them. 

“Oh! Oh, it’s Kraglin! Kraglin! KRAGLIN! HI!” 

The two of them stopped, Peter slowly turning to Kraglin with eyebrows raised. 

“...Secret girlfriend?” 

Kraglin smacked the back of Peter’s head, turning to see who it was. His eyes widened and he turned around quickly; standing up straight and thumping his chest in the Ravager salute. Peter blinked, rubbing the back of his head, and turned around to see what the fuss was about. 

A lem was snaking their way towards them, dark eyes curious and wide; in their arms was an android’s head, the eyes glowing bright and blinking in excitement. Peter ogled at the odd pair, glanced at Kraglin, and frowned when he saw how nervous the first mate looked. He then turned his attention back to the pair, crossing his arms over his chest slowly. 

“Kraglin! Oh you’re so big now! And you’re not so skinny, that’s so great!” The android sounded peppy and happy and feminine, and Peter cocked his head. The android then seemed to turn their – her? – attention on Peter. “Who’s your friend? Also stop saluting me, aren’t you a captain, now, too?” 

“Uh, well—”

“Pete’s Cap’n,” Kraglin interrupted, swallowing thickly and looking at Peter with a dart of his eyes. “Cap’n, this is Cap’ns Krugarr an’ Mainframe. They’s Ravagers.” 

Peter didn’t move for a second, staring blankly at the two captains, before he shook his head and smiled thinly. 

“Well, it’s nice to meet ya,” he said, holding out his hand. The lem, Krugarr he guessed from name alone, stared at his hand, before shifting Mainframe’s head to one arm. He then made a complicated gesture, and a glowing Mandala formed in the shape of a hand, moving side-to-side to show it waving. Peter pulled back, gave a quick wave, and shoved his hand into his back pocket awkwardly. “Alrighty.” 

“Pete—ohmygoodness!” Mainframe’s eyes seemed to brighten, and Krugarr shifted her so that she was in both arms again. “Oh my _goodness_ you’re the terran boy! You’re Yondu’s terran boy, oh my _GOODNESS_!” 

“You, ah. You knew Yondu?” 

“Yes!” Mainframe trilled, sounding as excited as she did about pretty much everything, it seemed. “Krugarr and I were part of the old team! Krugarr taught him how to read! I helped him find out what Centaurian dialect he should try to learn, he wasn’t really all that sure, you know, not knowing what tribe or clan he was from. Oh, I missed Yondu so _much_ , and I’m so sad he’s gone. But I was at the funeral! I helped with the Colours. Remember the funeral, Krugarr?” 

Krugarr nodded expression somehow solemn despite his lack of a mouth; Peter swallowed and Kraglin shifted uncomfortably. A thought then came to the terran. 

“Wait. You helped Yondu figure out what Centaurian dialect...?” 

“Hm?” Mainframe hummed. Krugarr shifted her in his arms, and she sighed heavily. “Oh, can we go somewhere with tables? I imagine Krugarr’s getting really tired of holding me up.” 

“...Do you not have a body?” 

“Sure I do! But _that’s_ for missions. It’s big and bulky and brimming with weapons. I just wanted to watch the races today! But this is so much more important, you’re _Peter_.” She laughed, then, and Peter smiled a little awkwardly. “There’s a little restaurant with outdoor seating just right over there, we can go there! They have really nice hot drinks, I’ve heard. And an excellent selection of batteries, I could use a charge-up!” 

Peter looked over to Kraglin again, who only shrugged, wide-eyed and unsure. The terran smiled at the lem and the android, and together the four of them made their way over to the restaurant. A waitress came over to help, taking their orders once she found a table for them. Once they situated themselves at a table with a corner for Kraglin and Peter to press against, and a bench for Krugarr to comfortably slide into, the red-scaled lem set Mainframe’s head gently on the table and she hummed again. 

“Much better! Now Krugarr can talk, too! Well, I say _talk_ – Krugarr uses Mandalas to talk, it’s really nifty? He used to use pads, as well, but he finds that typing up everything just takes too much time.” She paused, eyes blinking again. “Actually, Krugarr, you only used the pads while Yondu was learning to read, right?” 

Krugarr nodded, folding his hands over the top of the table. The waitress popped back over, then, setting down two glasses for Kraglin and Peter, a battery for Mainframe, and a bowl of something clear and steaming in front of Krugarr. Krugarr plugged in Mainframe after the waitress left, and Mainframe sighed happily, before Krugarr leaned forward and breathed in his beverage of choice deeply. 

Well, okay, that made sense. Peter watched in fascination for a moment before turning to Mainframe. 

“Okay, so, I’m sorry but – can we start over? Like proper introductions and all of that.” 

“Oh, you’re right; we just suddenly sprung up on you!” Mainframe cleared her throat (her vocal circuits? How does one talk about a sentient android head without becoming offensive?) and looked at Peter with bright, lit-up eyes. “Hi! My name is Mainframe. I’m the captain of the ship _Circuitry_. I was part of the original team that raided the Kree battleship that Yondu was kept on. I hacked the ship so that we could board, and I found the slave pens.” 

She paused, before turning her eyes seemingly to Krugarr. “This is Krugarr, captain of the ship _Serpentine_. Stakar thinks he’s funny with these names, right? Anyway – Krugarr’s a lem, a really powerful sorcerer, and he – well, okay, _they_ technically, lem don’t have discernable binary sex features, but he’s told us that we can use ‘he’ for ease’s sake – was one of the first members of the crew who Yondu trusted. Most likely because he couldn’t talk and therefore couldn’t lie? I guess? Krugarr’s just a good buddy. He carries me around whenever I want to go explore planets and not stomp around in my big clunky body, he’s the best.” 

“Do you guys travel together a lot?” 

“We’re often in the same quadrants, yeah! Ravagers don’t tend to travel alone; we like to stay in packs. A single Ravager ship can be cornered, but multiple Ravager ships are way harder to deal with. Aleta and Stakar usually stay within each other’s radius whenever they’re not fighting about something stupid. Sometimes Aleta and Charlie-27 will stick close – or Charlie and me! Or Krugarr and Aleta. It depends!” 

Peter frowned, thinking back to how the _Eclector_ had always been alone; had always had to be careful when it entered into a space battle, because of the very real threat of being cornered. He remembered Yondu teaching him the best ways to fight against multiple enemies when it was just him and his one ship. Useful information, and he’d used it often throughout his life – but it made him think back and realize Yondu had had to learn all of this because he’d been exiled. 

And he’d been exiled because he’d chosen to keep him instead of leaving him to something worse. 

Peter blinked when a three-fingered, red scaled hand reached forward and touched the back of his hand. He looked over to see Krugarr watching him with dark eyes, and he shifted a bit; clearing his throat uncomfortably. 

“So you helped him find Centaurian dialects?” 

“Well, Krugarr had to help him read, first,” Mainframe said, and Peter nodded. “I guess the Kree didn’t want their slaves to be able to read anything, else they’d start getting _ideas_ and everything. And Yondu for the longest while didn’t like the Mandalas, they made him nervous – magic makes a lot of people nervous, to be fair. Especially Eldritch magic. So Krugarr could only talk to Yondu through writing, so he taught him how to read and write in Galactic Common. Yondu was a real quick learner!” 

“Good at teachin’, too,” Kraglin said, fingers drumming along the side of his cup. “He taught Pete here how t’read an’ write in Galactic Common when we’s picked ‘im up. Kid could only read an’ write in one’a Terra’s more primitive languages.” 

“I would take offense to that, but you’re basically right, yeah,” Peter said, quirking a lopsided smile. “He was not a patient teacher, but he did alright. Told me he taught himself Centaurian.” 

“Oh, he definitely taught himself how to _speak_ it – I don’t have the programming to speak Centaurian! There’re a lot of clicks and whistles that I just can’t do, lacking things like a tongue and teeth and all. But I helped him find out what dialect his particular tribe of Centaurian would speak! It was really hard; it dealt with looking back through Kree records and their purchase receipts and everything. Made him really mad half the time.” She paused, then, seeming to stare at him. “You sound a lot like Yondu, actually.” 

“Huh? Really? I always thought I sounded less... uncouth.” 

“Oh, don’t get me wrong – you do have a much smoother pronunciation of words! Very slick. But it’s the dialects you’ve picked up.” 

“...You can hear those?” 

“I’m an android!” Mainframe laughed. “I don’t need a translator to understand others! Like Kraglin, he speaks lower Xandarian from one of the outer rim colonies. I always like listening to Kraglin, it’s a lot of fun! And Yondu, when we first picked him up, he spoke—”

“Lesser Kree-Lar, he mentioned that.” 

Mainframe blinked her eyes at him in surprise. 

“That’s shocking, actually – Yondu didn’t like talking about that at _all_. Kree-Lar is the seat of government for the Kree. It’s their capital city. There’s High Kree-Lar, Low Kree-Lar, and then Lesser Kree-Lar. High and Low are used by Kree citizens. They get pronouns like ‘I’ and ‘me’ and everything that identifies them as people. _Lesser_ Kree-Lar lacks that. Those who spoke it were forced to refer to themselves as ‘this one’, ‘it’, and ‘your servant’. He didn’t refer to himself for the longest time, not until he picked up other languages in order to talk to people.” 

“...I did not know that.” 

“Well, you only knew him when he’d picked up other languages! It’s not something you would have noticed. But it is something you picked up! You speak a _lot_ of Lesser Kree-Lar; I’m surprised some Kree haven’t mistaken you as an escaped slave. You also speak a lot of Centaurian! And a bunch of lower Xandarian, a bit of Krylorian... you are probably the _most_ interesting person to listen to, you should talk more.” 

Peter snorted. “You are the first and probably the _only_ person who will ever say that to me, Mainframe. Uh. Captain Mainframe.” 

“Oh, go ahead and call me Mainframe, you’re practically family!” She beeped, then, and Krugarr leaned forward to carefully unplug her from the battery. “Thanks, Krugarr; that was a really nice battery. Perfect amount of recharge! Anywho, why are you guys on G’Eskur?” 

“Shore leave,” Kraglin said, scratching his throat. Peter nodded, letting Mainframe’s words wash over him as he thought about what he’d learned in the last twenty minutes. 

He felt eyes on him again, and he looked over to see Krugarr watching him. He lifted his hands, and fiery Mandalas formed into a question mark. Peter smiled. 

“...I’m good, thanks.” 

Krugarr nodded, reached out again, and gently touched his hand. 

Peter thought he kinda got what Yondu liked about the lem.

~+~

Hours later, Kraglin and Peter finally left Krugarr and Mainframe’s company, Peter waving to them and Kraglin punching his chest in the salute once more. Once the two were out of sight, Peter rubbed the back of his head, looking over at Kraglin with raised eyebrows. 

“How in the world did Yondu know someone so peppy?” 

“Mainframe’s always been like tha’,” Kraglin said, shaking his head and smirking. “Met ‘er when I was first let on board the _Eclector_. She was connected to ‘er body, then, and she was _real_ intimidatin’-like. Cap’n was jus’ watchin with this _smirk_ an’ I didn’t know why – and then suddenly she speaks, an’ it’s this high voice that reminded me of a li’l girl. It was real strange t’me. First thing outta my mouth was ‘did yer voice box break, Cap’n Mainframe?’ She just _laughed_ , and Cap’n _laughed_ , and they all had a good time at my expense.” 

“Sounds like Yondu, yeah.” 

“Cap’n and Mainframe had a similar sense of humour. They liked seein’ the humour in stuff like tha’. An’ then there was the fact that Mainframe did help ‘im figgur out how t’learn his own language. He did it ‘imself, didn’t want help with _that_ , but he wanted t’make sure he learned it _right_. An’ Mainframe – she respected that. Respected a lot about Yondu. Liked how he was handlin’ his ship an’ its crew, back when they knew about wha’ was happenin’ on it.” 

“Ravagers seem really close.” 

“We’s family,” Kraglin said with a shrug. “We take care of our own. Ain’t nobody in their right head wanna mess with a Ravager clan – they get the ire of every other clan. Name’s blacklisted an’ everythin’. Even if you don’t know what the hell they did, if someone’s got a black mark on ‘em from another clan, s’yer duty basically t’give ‘im hell if yer near ‘em.” 

Peter nodded, frowning and shoving his hands into his pockets. “...So when it comes to exiled Ravagers...” 

Kraglin paused, mouth twitching, before he shrugged a shoulder. 

“...Ya deal with it yerself.” 

“...did Yondu ever blame me?” 

Kraglin blinked, looking at Peter in confusion, and Peter sighed. 

“About being exiled. About losing that safety net – that security. He and his ship were _alone_ for over twenty years, Kraglin. You guys had no one and nothing to fall back on if you ever got in trouble. I doubt the mutiny would’ve even happened if you guys hadn’t been exiled.” 

“...Maybe,” Kraglin said, tilting his head. “Yer right – life probably would’a been easier. But Cap’n never blamed you fer any of it – not even once. Don’t think it ever crossed his mind t’blame ya. You’s was jus’ a kid, Pete. A kid with a jackass father who was probably gon’ kill ya. Tha’s all Cap’n knew when it came t’you. An’ I don’t think if he’d been given the chance, tha’ he’d change his mind.” 

“I was just a _kid_ , Kraglin. One he didn’t even know.” 

“In the end, you was _his_ kid.” Kraglin paused, scratching the side of his nose. “An’ really, ain’t tha’ what matters?” 

Peter scrunched up his nose, and Kraglin grinned, reaching out and ruffling his hair – a touch on the rough side. 

“C’mon, we’re too late fer the races, but we can still check out tha’ junk shop.” 

“Hey – it’s _not_ a junk shop.” 

“Of course, _Cap’n_ , of course.”

**Author's Note:**

> Because Mainframe is voiced by freakin' _Miley Cyrus_ , and her one voice line is so peppy, I imagine Mainframe as this very peppy and cheerful android with highly destructive capabilities but only when she's on missions. If that makes sense.


End file.
